Abstract
Introduction: Quality of care in primary care paediatrics could vary depending on which health professional provides the care (Lemoine et. Al 2006). In Ireland primary paediatric care is provided by the general practitioners (GPs), public health nurses and public health doctors.
Aims: We examined the quality of primary paediatric care provided to the children of a cross section of parents attending a maternity hospital..
Methods: A quantitative study using a modified form of a validated questionnaire (P3C) (Seid et,al 2001) to examine perceived quality of primary care received by children of the of a sample of parents attending a tertiary maternity hospital in Dublin over a 2-month period.
Results: 111 of the 209 questionnaires were returned; 67% had some form of health insurance. The total perceived quality of primary paediatric care score using the P3C scoring system was 65% which was low compared to the presumed score of 80%. The communication was rated the highest at 79% while the lowest score (39%) was in comprehensiveness of care.
Discussion: This study demonstrates a good level of communication between parents and GPs. However the poor scoring for preventative health in the comprehensiveness section of the P3C questionnaire highlights the low level of preventative health education given to these parents.
Measured quality of care of care has provided an insight into the quality of primary paediatric care their children have received. Further studies may be helpful guiding the health service planners towards improving the quality of primary paediatric services in the country.
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Chukwu, J., Molloy, E. & Morgan, J. Parental Perception of the Quality of Primary Care Paediatric Services. Pediatr Res 70 (Suppl 5), 572 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2011.797
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2011.797